THE PRICE OF WHEAT AND FLOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22023, 4 August 1933, Page 7

THE PRICE OF WHEAT AND FLOUR

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your Issue of July 26 “ Energetic South Otago Farmer ” compares the prices of wheat and flour in Australia and New Zealand. The comparisons, however, are not quite fair to New Zealand, and require some explanation. “ Energetic South Otago Farmer ” states that wheat in Melbourne is 3s 4d per bushel and the price of flour is £8 12s 6d, and that in New Zealand the farmer gets 3s 6d for wheat and the price of flour is £l4 2s. Actually, in New Zealand in July the farmer gets 3s 8d for his Tuscan, 3s lOd for Hunter’s, and 4s for Velvet wheat. For this same wheat the miller has to pay the Wheat Purchase Board 4s Hid, 5s lid, and 5a 3id respectively, and the difference, Is 34d per bushel, is retained by the board to purchase the surplus wheat and to deal with it. If this scheme were not in operation this year the farmer would have been compelled to take export value for his wheat, and in the early months, when the bulk of the wheat was available and had to be sold, the export value was somewhere between 2s and 2s Cd per bushel. It may be mentioned, also, that m New Zealand the farmer is paid 10d each for his sacks in addition to the price for the wheat, whereas in Australia the farmer is paid nothing for the sacks in which the wheat is contained. Just one other point. Your correspondent omits to state that in Melbourne during the bulk of the selling season, say from January to April, the price to the Australian farmer was 2s 3d to 2s 6d per bushel, f.0.b., Melbourne, and it is only during the last month or so that the market has advanced in stages to 3s 4d. — I am, etc., Miller. Christchurch, August 2.